BarLatch™ Fairlead Stopper

The BarLatch™ Fairlead Stopper is an innovative underwater swiveling fairlead and chain stopper (sometimes referred to with the acronym “UCFS”) developed specifically for floating production applications. It is designed to achieve the best possible chain wear characteristics for successful long term passive mooring.

The principal components are an underwater Pivoting Chain Stopper and a swiveling Chainwheel. It addresses the need to reduce chain wear, when the mooring line is rarely moved, by placing the integral chain stopper outboard of the fairlead.

Depending on the application specific requirement, the BarLatch™ Fairlead Stopper can be designed as an underwater or deck mounted device. This versatility allows the Bardex engineers to optimize the Mooring System design to suit the customer’s exact needs.

When the stopper’s latches are engaged, the high line tension is removed from the chain in the vertical leg and around the underwater swiveling fairlead. This produces superior chain life compared with conventional chainwheels or bending shoe type fairleads.

Patented Worldwide

Product Advantages

The BarLatch™ Fairlead Stopper, compared to conventional mooring systems, has the following advantages:

Reduces main deck foundation loads thus reducing costs by incorporating the chain stopper (rated at or beyond the chain break strength) with the underwater fairlead

Minimizes both in-plane and out-of-plane bending of the mooring top chain.

Greatly reduces the relative motion between the last link contacting the fairlead (restrained from moving) and the link exiting the fairlead

By latching the links outboard of the fairlead, it eliminates chain wear due to twisting of links in the vertical leg of the mooring line where links contact the chainwheel while under tension